WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 19, 2019 (Gephardt Daily & UPI) — Donald Trump announced Saturday night that he is reversing course on his decision to use his Doral, Florida resort to host next year’s G-7 summit.
Trump made the announcement in a series of late night tweets.
“I thought I was doing something very good for our Country by using Trump National Doral, in Miami for hosting the G-7 Leaders. It is big, grand, on hundreds of acres, next to MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, has a tremendous ballrooms & meeting rooms, and each delegation would have its own 50 to 70 unit building. Would set up better than other alternatives. I announced that I would be willing to do it at NO PROFIT or, if legally permissible, at ZERO COST to the USA. But, as usual, the Hostile Media & their Democratic Partners went CRAZY.”
“We will no longer consider Trump National Doral, Miami, as the Host Site for the G-7 in 2020. We will begin the search for another site, including the possibility of Camp David, immediately. Thank you!”
On Thursday, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told reporters the resort in South Florida had been chosen over other choices because it is “the best place.”
Trump National Doral Golf Course near Miami opened in 1962 and consists of 800 acres. Trump purchased the property in 2012.
The White House had said the event would be run “at cost,” or without profit by the Trump Organization because of the emoluments clause of the Constitution that prohibits the president from accepting gifts and money from foreign governments.
But member of Congress suggested there was value because of the publicity of conducting the summit at the property.
“I read the emoluments clause again yesterday,” U.S. Rep. Adam, a Republican from Illinois told CNN on Friday, “and it talks about titles and nobility and all this. I don’t know if it’s a direct violation, but I don’t understand why at this moment they had to do it.”
Former White House press Secretary Ari Fleischer tweeted: “Good call.”
Tony Schwartz, who ghost wrote Trump’s The Art of the Deal, noted the quick reversal.
“Trump never admits being wrong on anything,” he tweeted. Now, after fierce criticism for clear self-dealing, he says he won’t hold G-7 at his own hotel after all. One more sign that he is feeling threatened and running scared.”
The White House advance team scouted locations in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee and Utah.
Mulvaney said the Trump administration ruled out Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, where the G7 took place in 2012.
The next G-7 is scheduled for June 10-12. This year’s event was held Aug. 24-26 in the resort town of Biarritz, France, from where he first suggested his Doral property would be an ideal location.
The G-7 consists of the the United States, Italy, Japan, France, Great Britain, Canada and Germany. Russia was voted out in 2014 though Trump wants the nation back in.
(DEVELOPING STORY)
